A review of the official sampling of flocks of laying hens in the Salmonella National Control Programme in Great Britain.

Abstract

In line with European legislation and the UK National Control Programme for Salmonella, poultry farms are sampled to establish their Salmonella status. Regular samples are collected by the farmer (operator), with annual routine (official) samples being collected by the competent authority to verify achievement of the Salmonella programme reduction target. To confirm sampling was being carried out effectively, a questionnaire-based survey was conducted. The aim was to identify any complicating factors the samplers encountered and the decisions made in these circumstances. There was good compliance with the official sampling visits, with few delays reported. However, farm-specific clothing/separate boots for non-caged houses were rarely provided by the operator, whereas boot dips and hand washing facilities were usually available. The collection of dust was often a problem for official samplers, operator boot swabs were not always moistened before sampling and both sampler groups did not always follow the recommended method for the collection of faeces from belts and scrapers. Overall, there was a good application of the sampling protocol, although a few areas for improvement were identified.